McHANCY REPORTER NewZ

PRESIDENT John Magufuli yesterday talked tough on false allegations circulating in social domain that 1.5 trillion/- was missing from public coffers, an amount of money that was supposed to be included in the budget for 2016/17 financial year.   The Head of State trashed the circulated information in the social media that attributed it to the recently released Controller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report. The visibly furious Head of State explained that he had gone through the CAG report thoroughly after hearing of the reported loss of the money but could not find the place in the report that mentioned such theft. “Judges should apply the country’s laws because if you mislead the nation, you may cause a serious impact… I hope that when such kinds of cases land on your desks, you would handle them speedily,” Dr Magufuli said. He was speaking at the State House in Dar es Salaam yesterday, at a function to swear in 10 new judges of the High Court, Deputy Attorney General, Solicitor Gen

THE Court of Appeal has rejected the appeal by a former employee of the Tanzania People’s Defence Forces (TPDF), Omary Nyambu, who was challenging the termination of his employment services with the army.   Justices Mbarouk Mbarouk, Rehema Mkuye and Jacobs Mwambegele ruled in favour of the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Defence, Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) and Attorney General (AG), after holding that the appeal by Nyambu, was time barred. They noted the certificate of delay accompanying the appeal was invalid to entitle the appellant to rely upon it in order to exclude the time in computing the time which the appeal ought to have been lodged in Court by reckoning it from the date when the application for copies of proceedings was made. “ Given the circumstances, we are of the settled view that the appeal was filed out of time. The appeal which was accompanied with an invalid certificate of delay is incompetent before the Court. Consequently, we strike it out,” the justices decla

THE World Bank has expressed its intention to assist Tanzania in the construction of the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) Isaka- Rusumo section and Rwanda’s section from Rusumo border to Kigali, along with other transport infrastructure such as roads to help promote business and social welfare as a whole.   This was revealed in Washington DC by Minister for Finance and Planning, Dr Philip Mpango, after discussions with the institution’s experts. Dr Mpango said other regional projects that the institution had shown interest to support include environment and rehabilitation of Lake Victoria ports of Mwanza, Musoma, as well as the ones in Lake Tanganyika, to facilitate transportation to Burundi and Congo. “These regional and national projects that the World Bank plans to implement with the government of Tanzania in the next financial year will ensure that they are sustainable as they affect all countries surrounding the two lakes,” he said. He further explained that it was similarly importa

PRELIMINARY report of a new marine study by Dr Fridtj of Nansen research vessel on Tanzania’s Indian Ocean waters has discovered the presence of abundant wheal fishes of a rare species in the world.   At a port call event held at the Dar es Salaam port end of this week, Livestock and Fisheries Minister Luhaga Mpina hinted about the results prior to final release of the document. “Knowing the amount of fish would now enable the“Knowing the amount of fish would now enable the government to make development plans and investment on these resources.”government to make development plans and investment on these resources,” Mr Mpina noted. The new development is expected to boost investment in fish processing industries in the country, and thus facilitate industrialisation. The ship has just concluded its two-week long research on fishery resources and ecosystem on the part of Tanzania’s waters. The vessel was conducting survey with the objective to collect data on distribution and abundance

THE government plans to hire additional 49,536 civil servants during the 2018/2019 financial year, out of whom 16,205 will be deployed to the health sector to reduce shortage of staff in health facilities countrywide, the National Assembly was told here. Health facilities are among areas which were highly affected when the government struck off the payroll in October 2016, over 14,000 employees with fake credentials, 3,310 of whom were from the health sector. The Minister of State in the President’s Office (Public Service Management and Good Governance), Capt. (retired) George Mkuchika, told the assembly that during that current financial year, government hired 2,500 health practitioners to curb the shortage of the sacked employees with fake academic certificates. In addition, the government employed 52,436Health facilities are among areas which were highly affected when the government struck off the payroll in October 2016, over 14,000 employees with fake credentials, 3,310 of whom

TANZANIA is poised to become a hub for medical tourism amongst its neighbours in the region and beyond, thanks to major improvements of its facilities and planned acquisition of 14.5bn/- state-of-the-art equipment for cancer screening known as Positron Emission Tomography (PET-Scan). Medical tourism is a situation where people travel from their countries of origin to another country for medical services which are not available, and in most cases superior, than what is provided in their home nations. The Minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Ms Ummy Mwalimu, said the scanner was not available in any country in the region and patients requiring the screening are referred to India and other countries abroad. “The government has allocated 14.5bn/- during the coming financial year to purchase the equipment which will be installed at the Ocean Road Cancer Institute,” Ms Mwalimu told a news conference here last Tuesday. A PET scan can be used to detect c

THE state of production of food crops in the country has improved, reaching 15.9 million tonnes in the 2016/17-2017/2018 seasons, enabling the nation to have a surplus of 2.6 million tonnes. The Prime Minister made the revelation in Dodoma yesterday, when he laid a foundation stone for the construction of silos and grain warehouse at Kizota, on the outskirts of the town. Having secured a soft loan amounting to US dollars 55 million (124bn/-) from the government of Poland, the government is planning to construct silos and grain warehouses in strategic areas in the country to improve the storage of food crops in the country. According to the prime minister, the fifth phase government would continue creating an environment for increasing food storage capacity from the current 251,000 to 700,000 tonnes by 2025. Initiatives to that end include building financial capacity for the Ministry of Agriculture through the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA). Others are construction of food proces

AN Israeli delegation led by Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked is expected to pay a three-day visit to Tanzania from today to next Tuesday. According to a press statement issued by the Communication Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and East African Co-operation, the delegation will include businesspersons and various company representatives.   The statement also explained that the visit would go handin- hand with the Fifth Tanzania-Israel Business Forum slated for April 23 and 24 at the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre. It is anticipated that the forum will bring together the business community from both Tanzania and Israel. Areas of concentration will include key sectors of economic growth like agriculture, industries, health, energy and tourism. Business communities will get a chance to exchange ideas with some government officials in order to attain the intended goals. The forum will be coordinated by the Tanzania Investment Centre in collaboration with the Tanza

THE government has given the green light to Geopoll, a mobile surveying platform, to operate in the country after meeting the requisite requirements. Minister for Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, Dr Harrison Mwakyembe, told a joint press conference with Geopoll here yesterday that Geopoll, which was suspended last year, was now allowed to collect statistics on broadcasting media audience.   He explained that Geopoll was last year suspended due to operating without recognition by the government, pointing out, among the terms, that Geopoll had met as registration, opening an office in the country which is located in Kinondoni Municipality, Dar es Salaam. Dr Mwakyembe added that the research company had employed Tanzanians and started to pay taxes to Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA). On his part, the country’s representative for Geopoll, Mr Athuman Sungura, said his company had been registered by the Business Registration and Licencing Agency (Brela), saying statistics which would